Herman Cain again denies harassment allegations, as a second accuser goes public

Holly Bailey

,

The Ticket•November 8, 2011

Herman Cain again strongly denied claims that he had sexually harassed women when he was head of the National Restaurant Association insisting the controversy will not drive him from the Republican presidential race.

"I have never acted inappropriately with anyone, period," Cain insisted at a news conference in Arizona. "I will not be deterred by false, anonymous, incorrect accusations."

Karen Kraushaar, who worked in the NRA communications department under Cain and now works as a spokeswoman for the Treasury Department, told the New York Times she's decided to talk since her name was leaked in media reports.

"When you are being sexually harassed in the workplace, you are extremely vulnerable," Kraushaar told the Times. "You do whatever you can to quickly get yourself into a job some place safe and that is what I thought I had achieved when I left."

Kraushaar told the Times she is unsure about how she will tell her story publicly but said she was considering "the idea of a joint press conference where all the women would be together with our attorneys, and all this evidence would consider together." She is the second woman to publicly accuse Cain. On Monday, Sharon Bialek, who previously worked for the NRA education fund, accused Cain of groping her in a car when she asked him for help looking for a new job.

Asked about Kraushaar's claims at his Arizona presser, Cain denied her account and insisted the NRA had found her claims to be "baseless"--even though the group reportedly paid her at least a $30,000 settlement. He said he would be willing to take a lie detector test to prove he's telling the truth that he's never harassed anyone--but he said he would need "a good reason to do so."

He cast the allegations against him as a plot to keep him from the White House--but admitted he had no definitive proof of an actual "conspiracy" to "wreck his character." He called Bialek a "troubled woman" who had been manipulated by a "Democratic machine."